Wayne Rooney and England are just the latest big names to turn to Adam Lewis QC

As well as the personal appearances of Wayne Rooney and Fabio Capello, the
Football Association were successfully represented in Nyon on Thursday by a
barrister who is firmly established among Europe’s main experts in sports
law.

Victory: Wayne Rooney, who was represented by Adam Lewis QC in his appeal against a three-match ban at Euro 2012, saw his suspension cut to two gamesPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

Adam Lewis QC took the lead in preparing the FA’s case and, after successfully persuading the Uefa appeals hearing that Rooney’s three-game England ban was excessive, can chalk this down among his growing list of victories.

One of Lewis’s most high-profile successes was when acting for Sheffield United before an FA arbitration tribunal, when he helped establish West Ham’s liability for damages, believed to be around £15 million, over the Carlos Tevez affair.

His influence on sports law in Europe has been evident in his involvement in a number of high-profile cases across other sports.

Most famously, he acted for the Belarus athletes, Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan, against the International Olympic Committee, after they were stripped of respective silver and bronze medals in the hammer final at the Beijing Olympics.

Each athlete successfully appealed against the IOC’s finding that they had tested positive for exogenous testosterone and had their medals returned.

The appeals were especially unusual in that the athletes succeeded in establishing that the laboratory’s positive results could not be scientifically relied upon.

Lewis is also part of the team who appeared for Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador after the International Cycling Union and World Anti-Doping Agency appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport when he was cleared by the Spanish cycling federation over a positive drugs test.

Contador’s legal team are understood to have argued that a contaminated steak he ate on a rest day in the Pyrenees during the 2010 Tour de France caused his positive test for clenbuterol, a banned anabolic agent.

Lewis also acted for Leyton Orient in their judicial review applications in relation to West Ham United’s bid for the Olympic Stadium. He has also worked as the appeal board chairman for the Rugby Football Union and the tribunal chairman of UK athletics.